Learning and collaboration at Health Cities Days in Sant Cugat

Last week, Medicon Village, together with City of Lund, joined partners from across Europe for Health Cities Days in Sant Cugat del Vallès, just outside Barcelona — a three-day study visit exploring how European regions can strengthen their health innovation ecosystems.

The visit, hosted within the framework of the Interreg Europe HEALTH CITIES project, brought together regional authorities, science parks, and innovation actors to exchange experiences on three key challenges identified across participating territories: access to early-stage and scale-up funding, attraction and retention of specialised talent, and barriers to clinical validation and EU regulatory navigation.

Each day offered a focused deep dive into one of these areas. Day 1 – Early Stage Funding Day examined how public and private instruments can better support early innovation, with examples of regional funding models and investor collaborations. Day 2 – Talent Day turned the spotlight on initiatives to attract, retain, and train talent in the life sciences sector — including a vibrant networking session at Mercantic’s Hangar space, where students and companies met through interactive challenges and an “escape room” experience designed to foster creative problem-solving. Day 3 – Regulatory Day looked at how clinical and technological environments, as well as research infrastructures and technology centres, can accelerate market access for health innovations, and included discussions with representatives from Boehringer Ingelheim, Roche, HP, and Grifols.

For Medicon Village, the visit provided valuable insights into how regions across Europe are addressing similar challenges, and reaffirmed the importance of collaboration between universities, innovation environments, and policy actors in building the right conditions for companies to grow. As the project moves forward, these learnings will help strengthen the ongoing work to support the “3Cs” of Competence, Capital, and Commercialisation within the Skåne life science ecosystem.